Fake Tanks
These tanks were never designed, by Germany at least; they have been made up by modeling companies, video game companies, or as kitbashes, etc. Panzer III Ausf.I Alied intelligence reported of the Panzer III Ausf.I in WW2, however there was never such project. Panzer III/IV mit Schmalturm L/70 Not to be taken seriously, diagram showing a hypothetical Panzer III/IV mounting a schmalturm. Sturmgeschütz III with 7,5cm StuG lg.K. L/30 Originally stemming from the "Catalog Of Enemy Ordnance Materiel", published in 1945 by the United States Chief of Ordnance, this was a simple misidentification of a Sturmhaubitze 42 Ausf.F with the muzzle brake removed. The confusion probably came from the fact that the StuH and StuG III were nearly identical, except for the fact that the Sturmhaubitze had a 10,5cm gun, not a 7,5cm; so when US Intelligence got their hands on photos of StuG IIIs with longer guns than the early 7,5cm KwK 37 L/24, and shorter than the later 7,5cm KwK 40 L/48, they put two and two together and guestimated this was a interim gun, 87 inches long (7,5cm x L/30 = ~87 inches). Panther II with Schmalturm and 8,8cm KwK 43 L/71 While writing Der Panzerkampfwagen Panther und Seine Abarten, Walter Spielberger encountered a report dated from February 10th, 1943, stating that experience on the Eastern Front had shown that the Panther did not have sufficiently thick side armor. As the Panther had not gone into combat at that time, he assumed the date was a typo, and that the document was from 1944. However, the document was indeed from 1943, and was referring to problems experienced with other vehicles, mainly that Russian 14.5mm anti-tank rifles could penetrate their side armor. Since Spielberger had assumed this document came from 1944, not 1943, this led him to believe that the Panther II project was still going in 1944, even though it had thought to have been cancelled. This further led to the Panther II erroneously being linked with the Schmalturm turret (1944), and the Schmalturm mit 8,8cm KwK 43 L/71 (1945). In reality the Panther II was cancelled in 1943, since its major improvement - thicker side armor to defeat Russian AT rifles - was rendered redundant with the introduction of Schürzen. Gefechtsaufklärer E-10 Leopard Made up by a Mr. Sebastian Nast; in what he claims is "historical extrapolation", had the War continued, this vehicle would have hit the battlefields in 1947. It is simply an E-10 chassis with a Gefechtsaufklärer Leopard (VK16.02) turret. While a similar vehicle was proposed in the last days of the War (Panzer-Aufklärer auf E-25), the E-10 Leopard is not based in reality. E-15 Originally a 1:72nd scale model coming from the now-defunct "World at Arms" site, then hosted at the site "adpublishing.de", this most has been reposed several times across different wargaming forums. The image is often often accompanied by the description from adpublishing.de, which notes it as a fictional "what if" vehicle, and describes it as an E-10 without hydraulic suspension, thicker armor, and an 8,8cm KwK 36 L/56 cannon. While "what if" vehicles are fine as long as they are marked as such, careless posters or careless readers might take it as a real design. Panzerjägerwagen E-25 Jaguar II (E-25 with 8,8cm) Made up by a Mr. Sebastian Nast; in what he claims is "historical extrapolation", had the War continued, this vehicle would have hit the battlefields in 1947. It is an E-25 with a 8,8cm PaK 43 L/71 cannon which Nast calls "Jaguar II", what "Jaguar I" was, he never says. Due to the E-25's compact form, any gun bigger than the 7,5cm PaK 42 L/70 it was supposed to be armed with would almost certainly not have been able to fit into the tank. Panzerkampfwagen E-79 Schwarzwolf / Zekke VK6600(h) (aka Panther III) One of three fake German tanks made for the 1999 Playstation 1/Dreamcast game "Panzer Front". The motivation for the creation of these vehicles is still a mystery, as the game was supposed to be a "simulator". In the game the tank is called "Panzerkampfwagen VK6600(h) E-79", which in itself does not make sense; E-79 would imply it would weigh over 79 tons, but VK6600 would imply it to be in the 66 ton class. Even the nomenclature "VK6600" is wrong, VK numbers do not end in 0, they end in 1, 2, 3, and so on, for variations of that tank. For example, VK45.01, VK45.02, and VK45.03. The names "Schwarzwolf" (Black Wolf) and "Zekke" were not from the game Panzer Front, but have since popped up on the internet, as has the name "Panther III". On many dubious websites and forum posts made by uninformed people, the E-79 is passed off as a real vehicle from the end of World War II, often with a convincing story about its supposed developement. However even those who do not have a great interest in the history of vehicles they model or play now recognize the E-79 as fake, and know its real story. The E-79 is probably one of the oldest and most known fake tanks. Panzerjägerwagen E-79-128 (aka Jagdpanther III) Made up by a Mr. Sebastian Nast, this is a tank destroyer based on the E-79 (see above). In what he claims is "historical extrapolation", had the War continued, this vehicle would have hit the battlefields in 1948 (nevermind the fact that the vehicle it's based on is from 1999). The name "Panzerjägerwagen" was never used in reference to a real vehicle. Had this vehicle been real, its name would have been "Jagdpanzer" or "Panzerjäger", depending on its purpose. Likewise it was not German nomecleture to use a dash and a number to denote gun calibre, expecially when there was no other alternative; something Nast has not made up at this time. Schnell Jagdpanzer SchK I Aureole/75 One of three fake German tanks made for the 1999 Playstation 1/Dreamcast game "Panzer Front". The name "Schnell Jagdpanzer" means "Fast tank destroyer", however the meaning of "SchK" is unclear. Possibly it stands for "Schnellkannone". "Aureole" is a French word meaning "halo". The most ridiculous thing about the Aureole's is that they were powered by twin jet turbines that shot flames out of the back. While turbine-powered tanks were something the Germans looked into (see Panzerkampfwagen Panther GT 101), the turbine would have been significantly down-tuned in order to power such a heavy vehicle. Schnell Jagdpanzer SchK II Aureole/88 One of three fake German tanks made for the 1999 Playstation 1/Dreamcast game "Panzer Front". It differed from the Aureole/75 only in that the Aureole/88 had an 8,8cm KwK L/100 cannon. Jagdpanther II 1 Jagdpanzer E-50 / Panzerjägerwagen E-50 (aka Falke) 1 Jagdpanzer E-75 1 E-90 / Tiger III L Originally made up by a Mr. Sebastian Nast, the E-90 has since passed into infamy among tank aficionados. In what he claims is "historical extrapolation", Nast says had the War continued, this vehicle would have hit the battlefields in 1947. It is a slightly scaled-down E-100 with a turret similar to the "E-100 Adler Turret" (also a fake: see a few entries down) presented as a "lighter alternative to the E-100." The E-90, probably the oldest of Nast's creations, has taken on a life of its own on the internet since its inception. Users of various forums, most commonly the "World of Tanks Forums", will time to time start threads relating to the E-90 or vehicles like it. These threads are usually accompanied by either a fake history of the vehicle, or the user saying something along the lines of "I just found this, there isn't much about it, isn't it cool?" At this time, most people who are even remotely serious about tank history now recognize the E-90 to be fake. Those that perpetuate the myth are usually new to the subject. Jagdpanzer E-90 Krokodile / Panzerjägerwagen E-90 / Jagdtiger II / Kampfwagenvernichter E-90 Krokodile 1 E-100 Henschel Turret / E-100 Ausf.B / Tiger III S Only Krupp and Porsche designed turrets for the E-100; Adler and Henschel never did. The turret was designed by the modeller Michael Rinaldi as a scratchbuilding exercise for a bit of fun. He used the Dragon E-100 kit and cut the turret about to make the shape shown here and parts of the gun barrel were fabricated from a felt-tip pen. He called it the E-100 Ausf.B and the name stuck. E-100 Adler Turret 1 E-100 Krokodile / Jagdpanzer E-100 The only project ever based on the E-100 chasis was the StuG E-100; the suspension could not support a design like the one in the picture. One of the first of the many fake German vehicles to appear, it was made up by Hubert Cance, the man behind many of these fakes, and published in the repressed Neo-Nazi French magazine, "Batailles & Blindés". Jagdtiger E-100 It would not make any sense to put a gun so (comparatively) weak on a chasis so compliced to make. This tank was made up by ww2models.com Flakpanzer E-50 The Flakpanzer E-50 originated from the modeling company Trumpeter in 2010, when a 1/35th scale model kit of it was released. Trumpeter's source and motivation for making the design are unknown. The kit's description is as follows: "On May 8th 1944 the general of Flak-weapons ordered the development of a 5.5cm Flakpanzer with a Zwillingsflak (twingun). The twinguns should be integrated in a turret. Krupp and Rheinmetall got the order for the development of that turret. The turret was designed for the E-50/E-75 tank had a crew of 4 and 104 shot ammunition. A prototype of the turret had been build until January 1945." The date and order for this gun, 5.5cm Flakzwilling Gerät 58, may very well be correct; actual documentation for this weapon system is virtually nonexistant. However Trumpeter's mistake was in assuming it was meant for the E series. In reality the Gerät 58 was projected to be mounted on the Panther chassis. It is possible, had the War continued and the Gerät 58 and E-50 been produced, that they would have been combined into a "Flakpanzer E-50" as the Panther was phased out of production; but that is just conjecture. Flakpanzer E-75 The Flakpanzer E-75 originated from the modeling company Trumpeter in 2010, when a 1/35th scale model kit of it was released. Trumpeter's source and motivation for making the design are unknown. The kit's description is as follows: "On May 8th 1944 the general of Flak-weapons ordered the development of a 5.5cm Flakpanzer with a Zwillingsflak (twingun). The twinguns should be integrated in a turret. Krupp and Rheinmetall got the order for the development of that turret. The turret was designed for the E-50/E-75 tank had a crew of 4 and 104 shot ammunition. A prototype of the turret had been build until January 1945." The date and order for this gun, 5.5cm Flakzwilling Gerät 58, may very well be correct; actual documentation for this weapon system is virtually nonexistant. However Trumpeter's mistake was in assuming it was meant for the E series. In reality the Gerät 58 was projected to be mounted on the Panther chassis. Unlike the Flakpanzer E-50, which in theory might have become real had the War continued, the Flakpanzer E-75 would never have materialized. The Panther chassis was used for the Gerät 58 because of its size and therefore ability to carry the weapon, not for its armor. The 80mm of frontal armor supplied by the Panther and by extention the E-50 was more than enough for a self-propelled anti-aircraft gun; the 150mm of frontal armor of the E-75, inherited from the Tiger II, would have been entirely unnecessary for a vehicle designed to fight enemies that would rarely fire back, and when they did - with at most 20mm autocannons. Flakpanzer E-100 No flakpanzer was ever proposed to be based on the E-series. Flakpanzer Maus No flakpanzer was ever proposed to be based on the maus. Geschützwagen Tiger P This tank was made up by company WarGaming for their game World of Tanks. Possibly misinterpreted from the project to arm a Ferdinand with a captured French 210mm mortar (this project later led to the Sturmtiger) as an artillery piece. Geschützwagen E-100 This tank was made up by company WarGaming for their game World of Tanks, based on entitlements taken from an unverified intelligence report. Whether it is real or not, nothing official has shown up for this vehicle yet. No prototypes, blueprints, design specifications, or even proposals have been found. Waffenträger E-100 This tank was made up by company WarGaming for their game World of Tanks, and is a combination of a modified E-100 hull and 15cm Autoloading Anti-Aircraft Gun. It is worthy of note that the autoloading system was twice as big as is represented on WarGaming's vehicle. This fake was recently removed from the game. Sturmpanzer Maus There was never a plan to design and produce a Maus with a 380mm mortar like the Sturmtiger. VK28.01(DB) Supposedly a continuation of the Gefechtsaufklärer Leopard (VK16.02) project, this tank is mentioned vaguely on some unreputable websites as a larger version of the Leopard. The very concept of it makes no sense. The Leopard project was dropped because it was seen as not being worth the time to put into production an entirely new type of tank, that wouldn't be all that different from the Panther. Instead the Leopard was dropped and the Aufklärungspanzer V Panther took its place as the Wehrmacht's future scout tank. Why then, would a leopard with its hull lengthened to the size of a Panther, even be considered? It is oxymoronic! This tank would be identical to the Aufklärungspanzer V Panther, except that it wouldn't be based on an existing chassis, therefore it would need a separate production line, and a separate supply line to maintain. VK72.01(K) This tank was likely made up by Yuri Pasholok for the game World of Tanks. Wargaming claims that the tank is based on a wooden mock up for a variant of the Löwe, given the name "Leichter Löwe", but there are no design specifications for this object, and no record of the classification, VK72.01(K). The tank seems to have some design choices based off the Maus as well, a likely misinterpretation of how the Löwe development continued, evolving into the Maus, and Yuri may have thought of this as just another Löwe variant, which led Wargaming to pretty much making a Löwe / Maus hybrid. Schützenpanzerwagen E-50 Buffel Fake scout vehicle based off a modern scout vehicle. Schützenpanzerwagen E-90 Bison Fake scout vehicle based off a modern scout vehicle. Universalabwehrkampfwagen E-100UA Alligator No flakpanzer was ever proposed to be based on the E-series. Sturmgeschütz T-34 The first photo was published in a magazine and passed off as real; the second photo is the original. T-34 mit 8,8cm Flak 18 Original photo (left) was photoshopped to show a T-34 with a 8,8cm flak gun mounted on it.Furthermore,it would not make sense to mount a gun so high which will exposed the tank. Various Photoshopped Pictures: Category:Misc